1 John 1:1-4. (NIV)
1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our joy complete.
John begins by proclaiming the eternal life that he has seen and heard. Eternal life is not fire insurance; it is relationship. Jesus said that eternal life consists of knowing the Father and the Son (John 17:3). Fellowship with the Father and with Jesus Christ is eternal life, and here in this passage, eternal life has now appeared on Earth and John testifies that he has seen and heard it.
I have not seen Jesus with my eyes, or heard his voice with my ears, or touched him with my hands, but I have experienced the presence of God in ways that I could not ignore or deny. I know from my own experience that he is real, that he is holy, and that he forgives sin. I know that when he met me at RAF Croughton in 1983, I was not worthy to stand in his presence or to call on his name, but he made me worthy through the blood of Christ Jesus. This is not just doctrine I have read, but the experience that I lived through. This is my testimony; not a theology of Christ that I learned in church, but what I myself have experienced.
